- Address: Lato Porta San Francesco, San Marino Città (the center of the Old Town)
- Phone: 0549 991215
- Website: thetorturemuseum.it
- Opening hours: January-February 10.00-18.00, March-December 10.00-19.00, August 10: 00-20: 00
In the cities of Europe, you can find a large number of museums that reflect the life of the Middle Ages. Among them are especially common museums of torture or other horrors, which were popular in those days, times of violence of the Inquisition. In San Marino, too, there is one museum, which not everyone will dare to go to, but those who dare to do it will be exactly interested in it.
Exposition of the Museum of Torture
The Museum of Torture (Museo della Tortura) in San Marino is not the largest, but, perhaps, one of the best museums displaying this subject. It contains a rather frightening collection, which includes more than a hundred of torture tools that were used in the middle of the century. He is the only one among such museums, in which the whole story of such a terrible phenomenon as torture and the Inquisition is presented.
More than a hundred of its exhibits are various adaptations that were created by people and used as tools of torture. They were created over many centuries, beginning with the Middle Ages and ending with the XIX and XX centuries. Part of the exposition is presented by original exhibits, and some are reproduced according to sketches and instructions that have survived to our times. In addition to the guns themselves, the museum has reconstructed events and scenes of how people mocked people.
Introduction to exhibits
At first glance, even the instruments of torture seem harmless. But this impression in the Museum of Torture in San Marino remains only as long as you do not read the way they are used. Then it becomes really creepy. The instruction manual is described on the tablets, which are posted near each gun.
Each torture tool has its own name. For example, the exhibit "Iron Maiden" - a kind of metal cabinet, in which the guilty person was closed. The bottom line is that on its inner side there are long nails that dig into the body of the unfortunate. When a person was dying, the bottom of such a cabinet was opened and the body was dumped into the river.
No less cruel invention can be called the chair of the inquisitor. It is a chair, studded with long spines, which was usually planted for interrogation of a naked prisoner. And every movement caused unbearable pain to a person. And to enhance the effect, other instruments of torture were used.
Also interesting for visitors will be other exhibits, which contains the Museum of Torture in San Marino. For example, the Spanish boot, Vila the heretic, Grusha and many others. The eerie descriptions of each say that any of these innocuous exhibits was created to bring pain and suffering. And with every century the perverted imagination of inventors went further and torture became more sophisticated - they maimed, hurt and led to death.
Tour of the museum will take a little time, although it is located on three floors of the house. At the end of the tour, you should go down to the basement. There is a "casemate" on which the skeleton lies.
In addition to the permanent exhibition, exhibitions are held periodically in the museum, which tell about the actions of the Inquisition in different parts of the world. And the examination of the exhibits in the museum is accompanied by medieval music, which only strengthens the sensations and emotions from viewing.
In order to better understand the exposure of the Museum of Torture in San Marino, you will be given at the entrance a book with descriptions in the language that you own. But at the output it will have to be returned. And you can leave your impressions in the book of reviews after leaving the museum.
Thanks to such an exposition one can see a vivid demonstration of the fact that every power and every state is criminal, since they allow such a rampage of cruelty and mockery. The guns are changing, but their meaning remains. The Torture Museum in San Marino is an exhibition of real cruelty and horror and its visit is a great compassion for any normal person who does not accept violence.
How to get there?
The Torture Museum in San Marino is located in the city center next to the main gate of Porta San Francesco, about 10 meters away. It is located in a small house built in the Middle Ages. To get into it, you need to turn right and climb up the stairs.
Entrance (for one person):
- for adults - € 8,00;
- for children from 4 to 6 years - € 6,00;
- for groups of 20 people - € 4,00.
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